The Difference Christianity Made

How did Christianity shape the civilization of the West? Let me count (some of) the ways, with an assist at several points from British intellectual historian Larry Siedentop. The story of Jesus had an immense impact in forming "the West." Before Jesus, the family, the primary unit of social and personal identity, was the locus of immortality: One "lived on" in one's family. In Jesus, crucified and raised from the dead, the individual became the locus of immortality. That gave new meaning to "the individual," who was now invested with a previously unimaginable dignity.